Justin Bieber gave away his Champ of Charity Award presented at Sunday’s 2014 Young Hollywood Awards last night to Grace Kesablak, a 11-year-old Make-A-Wish recipient who is battling cancer.
Justin Bieber did something amazing last night, and we’re in shock.
The 20-year-old superstar was presented with the Champ of Charity Award for his work with the Make-A-Wish Foundation at the 16th Young Hollywood Awards in Los Angeles Sunday night, only to give it away moments later.
But, hold your horses.
Before anyone goes off half-cocked on another non-story à la “Justin Bieber actually used a wheelchair at Disneyland for a legit knee injury not to cut lines” and thinks the singer pawned his latest shiny prize — in fact, he helped make an 11-year-old girl with rhabdomyosarcoma (i.e cancerous tumors of muscles attached to the bone and typically requires chemotherapy, radiation and often surgery) — feel like the most valued person in the world on Sunday.
Which is exactly how Grace Kesablak wanted to feel, although she used an age-appropriate word.
Kesablak’s family enrolled her with the Make-A-Wish Foundation which “grant[s] the one true wish of a child who has a life-threatening medical condition,” every 38 minutes.
Grace’s one wish?
She wanted to be a celebrity . For a short time anyway. Hence the hashtag #celebritygrace launched Sunday by the Twitter accounts for Make-A-Wish America and Los Angeles .
Thanks to Make-A-Wish , Grace was treated to a whirlwind three days of fabulousness.
This included an E!News interview, a makeover and a professional photo shoot, dinner with “Pretty Little Liars” star Keegan Allen, a red carpet appearance with Australian teen singer Cody Simpson, and a “table date” with Bieber at the Young Hollywood Awards where Grace met some of the other stars.
On the night, a possibly nervous Bieber — well, he has become accustomed to boos in large spaces — received a rapturous reception from the audience.
That may have had something to do with the giant screen playback of the singer’s five-year, record-breaking 226 wishes (and counting) carried out with Make-A-Wish, a few moments before pal singer and collaborator Cody Simpson introduced him.
Once on stage, a casually dressed Bieber (it wasn’t black tie, Simpson was in shorts), told the screaming crowd he didn’t do Make-A-Wish for “recognition” but because “I love it” and “to make them [children] smile.”
“Someone asked me backstage and they said, ‘What’s it like to give?’” Justin recalled.
“And I didn’t really know what to say, but now I know what to say it’s so much better than receiving.”
“This isn’t even my award. This is Grace’s over here. So Grace, can you come up here real quick?”
After Grace clambered on stage with Justin’s help, he asked the crowd to cheer for Grace and handed the Champ of Charity award to the little girl, telling her:”This award is for you!”
The singer then kissed, hugged, and lifted her up as they left the stage together to continued wild applause.
From photos of the moment, Grace’s face says it all.
Our #MCM goes to @justinbieber . Tune in tonight to see this incredible moment with @celebritygrace at on @CW_network ! pic.twitter.com/EExagq03Rq
— YoungHollywoodAwards (@YHAwards) July 28, 2014
Some time after the show, Grace posted her thoughts and thanks to people at an Instagram account under “celebritygrace,” where she chronicled her “celebrity” experience from start to finish .
She managed to articulate how she felt when Justin gave her the Champ of Charity award, posting it with a blurred but nonetheless brilliant photo.
Grace captioned it: “@justinbieber just accepted his “Champ For Charity” award on behalf of #makeawishfoundation at the #younghollywoodawards…and then invited me on stage to donate the award to me…AND I got to keep it!!! Most magical moment…EVER.”
Magical. What an amazing word to see a child with a potentially, grave medical condition use.
We’re all pretty quick to jump on Bieber when he messes up, and often when he doesn’t .
One wonders how forthcoming the deserved praise for his tremendous gesture at the YHAs will be, not to mention all of his charitable work to date?
We’ll start the ball rolling: You did good last night Justin Bieber. Keep it up.
( Photo: Bieber at the YHAs in Los Angeles last night .)
For the complete winner’s list at the 2014 Young Hollywood Awards click the highlight. And to catch the show, tune in to The CW Network tonight at 8/7c.
We grant the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy.
— Make-A-Wish America (@MakeAWish) July 28, 2014
[ Images via Getty Images for Variety .]